From March to July 2021, I continued to work with Tate following on from the Routes In research I carried out for the Young People’s Programmes team. One of the recommendations was for long-term networking, mentoring, training and development, and I was approached to set up and evaluate an internal mentoring programme. This was run in partnership between Tate and Creative Society with the Tate Collective Producers (TCPs) paired off with a Tate member of staff (mainly band 4 level - i.e. Assistant Curator type roles).

The pilot consisted of nine mentoring pairs with the following steps:

Step 1: Recruitment and planning (February/March 2021);

Step 2: Training for Mentors and Mentees (end of March 2021);
Step 3: Six fortnightly sessions of an hour long online or via phone call, alongside networking events to connect with each other and share knowledge and expertise (April to June 2021);
Step 4: Monitoring progress, supporting mentoring pairs and evaluation (throughout);
Step 5: Following up post mentoring with TCPs and future plans for mentoring at Tate (July 2021 and then ongoing).

The learning from the evaluation of the pilot will be taken forward into year 2 with the idea that the mentees from year 1 may get involved as peer buddies. Comments from the mentors included:

“I would tell other Tate staff that it's a really useful and important extension of what we do at Tate.”

“It's a great opportunity to reflect on your own practice as well as learning a new skill and supporting a young person into the arts.”

“I was really impressed by the perspective and ideas being presented by the mentee which I found exciting and inspiring.”

And feedback from the mentees included:
“I feel mentoring has allowed me to discuss my confusions around applications and interviews, and has given me the chance to speak with a young professional who is confident in their own line of work… I think it’s rare to be able to have employability conversations focused on a specific part of the creative sector.”

“I’ve enjoyed being a mentee and it has led me to find opportunities and it has made me believe in myself and what I can achieve.”

“The world started to open up 3 sessions in… I’ve got back on a better path for work and employment.”